Pirates fall 2-1 to Phillies, again in extra innings

Mitch Keller was good again. The Pittsburgh Pirates bats were poor again.

Keller had his fourth straight solid start, going six innings, giving up one run on five hits with three walks and three strikeouts, but Pittsburgh only had four hits on the day, and a Michael Chavis throwing error to third base in the 10th inning allowed Didi Gregorius to score the winning run and send Pittsburgh to their sixth straight defeat, as they fell 2-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies. All six losses in Pittsburgh’s losing streak have come by two runs or less.

Pittsburgh had a few chances, as Diego Castillo flew out to end a bases loaded threat for the Bucs in the fourth, while Kevin Newman was tagged out at home in the sixth, and Oneil Cuz was picked off at second as the extra innings runner.

Keller also got out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning and his only major mistake came in the sixth when he gave up a solo homer to J.T. Realmuto.

Pittsburgh’s only run came on a game-tying solo shot from Cal Mitchell in the seventh.

Michael Chavis went 2-for-4 as the Pirates’ only multi-hit batter, while Yerry De Los Santos took the loss on the unearned run to fall to 0-3 on the season.

The Bucs will look to avoid being swept this afternoon at 2:15pm (EDIT: Um, 1:35. That’s what I get for working off a spreadsheet I made in April.)